Catalytic conversion of synthetic sulfur-pollutants in petroleum fractions under different photocatalyst loadings and initial concentration

Abstract

In the oil and gas industry which applied to petroleum sources, thiophene is one of the sulphur contaminants that may harm the environment. The contents of sulphur in petroleum product gives out concern regarding the negative and harmful effect of sulphur contaminants onto environment and living health. One of the promising methods to degrade thiophene is photocatalytic degradation process. The usage of ZnO nanoparticles in photocatalytic degradation process has been wider due to its broad band gap, greater excitation of energy binding, and high stability. Several studies have discovered the ability of ZnO with capping agent in photocatalytic activity. Photocatalytic activity of photo-catalyst was affected by particle size, shape and morphology that are depending on the preparation method. Hence, this study put on priori-ties on synthesizing ZnO nanoparticles using precipitation method with the addition of KCC-1 which act as capping agent and used in the degradation of synthetic thiophene solution. The characterization of ZnO-KCC-1 using FTIR has confirmed that the successfulness produc-tion of ZnO-KCC-1 via precipitation method. There are three different loading of ZnO-KCC-1 (0.05 g/L, 0.10 g/L and 0.15 g/L) and thio-phene concentration (100 ppm, 300 ppm and 600 ppm) had been carried out in photocatalytic degradation of thiophene. The pH value for all fixed condition remains constant at natural pH range which is pH 7. The optimum condition of degrading synthetic thiophene under natural pH range by using ZnO-KCC-1 is at its loading of 0.05 g/L with the initial concentration of synthetic thiophene of 300ppm.The kinetic study of this research has been confirmed to be at the first-order of kinetic reaction.